Brigitte Kowanz, Manfred Wakolbinger and Erwin Wurm exhibit sculptures in the city of Salzburg and thus extend the renowned list of their predecessors.
The Salzburg Culture project has existed for over ten years, and has involved internationally renowned artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Marina Abramovic and Jaume Plensa each year. In this anniversary year, the organizers were able to win over three Austrian artists and international stars of the contemporary art scene for their project: Brigitte Kowanz, Manfred Wakolbinger and Erwin Wurm. Like the artists before them, they designed a sculpture specially for a place which they selected in the city of Salzburg area; these sculptures were revealed to the public at the beginning of October.
Brigitte Kowanz enriches the project with a light installation ("Beyond Recall") on the state bridge (Staatsbrücke). The transparent cube which she placed on a pillar of the bridge interposes itself subtly on the architecture of the bridge, but engages equally the entire environment and the viewer. The diverse connotations connected with the bridge building - the crossing, interface, lock, sleeper room, exercise room - overlapwith the concrete historical significance of the Staatsbrücke for the city of Salzburg. On the one hand, the bridge has been a connection between old and new towns, but on the other hand was built by forced labor under inhuman conditions during the Second World War. A plaque on the Neustadt bridgehead commemorates this and the artist has included it in her approach.
With his steel sculpture ("Connection") on Rudolfskai, Manfred Wakolbinger wants to show the connection between the old city walls and the liveliness of its inhabitants. The eleven-meter-long sculpture ends in two funnel-like openings and thus symbolizes the receptivity of the city for the life that happens in it.
Erwin Wurm shows his humorous installations ("Gurken" or "Cucumber") in the Furtwänglerpark. He himself describes it: "The fascination with the diversity of forms that cannot be exhausted ... Each cucumber is individual, yet instantly recognizable as a cucumber and assignable to a category ... similar to humans."
The works of the "Walk of Modern Art" are freely accessible for residents and visitors and will contribute to increasing awareness of contemporary art.
Since 2002, the Salzburg Foundation, with support of Foundation for Art and Culture Bonn, has externded the sculpture walk each year with the addition of works of a renowned artist. Artistic director of the project is Walter Smerling.
http://www.stiftungkunst.de/index.php?id=5, www.salzburgfoundation.at
BEYOND RECAL von Brigitte Kowanz / Staatsbrücke
GURKEN von Erwin Wurm / am Furtwängler Park
CONNECTION von Manfred Wakolbinger / Rudolfskai